Post by texasbb on May 10, 2016 18:35:34 GMT -8
I promised last fall to post a report from my first trip this year. All I could fit in was a dayhike, but here it goes. I usually hike in the Washington Blue Mtns on Memorial Day because that's about when I can move freely without too much snow. This year I went three weeks early and still had less snow than usual. Oregon Butte is the high point in the Washington Blues. It holds a fire lookout hut and sits in the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. I went in on the Panjab trail, which is one of the few trails in the area that starts low--many of them start high and drop down into the steep canyons--so it's easy to drive to this time of year.
Weather was mostly clear, highs in lower 60s. I out-n-backed a dayhike up to an area known as Indian Corral, which is the nexus of several gorgeous miles-long ridgetop meadows, then south to Oregon Butte. The round trip was maybe 18 miles.
More here if interested.
I drove over early Saturday and was on the trail by 8:20. The fires and whatever else has killed trees along that trail have contributed to an ever more jammed Panjab Creek:
Going this early I didn't know what to expect with regard to wildflowers, and I really got very little:
Up at the main junction at Indian Corral. The signpost appears to have finally given up the ghost, and someone seems to have run off with the sign:
Often I go down via the Rattlesnake trail, which has some very nice views as you descend steeply down between the Panjab and Tucannon drainages, but not today. Wish I'd had time to at least go that way for a ways:
Instead, I headed south on Mt Misery trail toward Oregon Butte:
The grass widows were starting, but not exactly exploding yet:
Before heading to the Butte, I swooped by Dunlap Spring to tank up. When I got there, I saw a most unusual mushroom on the ground, so I grabbed my camera and went to ground for a closeup. Turns out it wasn't a mushroom. An onion on the ground at Dunlap Spring??
Off to Oregon Butte.
Views from the north end of the ridge:
I went to sign the register, but someone had left the peanut butter jar hanging outside its little hut and it filled with water. The register was completely soaked. I tried to carefully trace my name on it but it didn't really show. But it's still the first name there in 2016.
I put it back in the little hut but not in its jar...hopefully it'll dry out and still be usable.
Views from the Butte:
Stopped at Woody's in Dayton...
Weather was mostly clear, highs in lower 60s. I out-n-backed a dayhike up to an area known as Indian Corral, which is the nexus of several gorgeous miles-long ridgetop meadows, then south to Oregon Butte. The round trip was maybe 18 miles.
More here if interested.
I drove over early Saturday and was on the trail by 8:20. The fires and whatever else has killed trees along that trail have contributed to an ever more jammed Panjab Creek:
Going this early I didn't know what to expect with regard to wildflowers, and I really got very little:
Up at the main junction at Indian Corral. The signpost appears to have finally given up the ghost, and someone seems to have run off with the sign:
Often I go down via the Rattlesnake trail, which has some very nice views as you descend steeply down between the Panjab and Tucannon drainages, but not today. Wish I'd had time to at least go that way for a ways:
Instead, I headed south on Mt Misery trail toward Oregon Butte:
The grass widows were starting, but not exactly exploding yet:
Before heading to the Butte, I swooped by Dunlap Spring to tank up. When I got there, I saw a most unusual mushroom on the ground, so I grabbed my camera and went to ground for a closeup. Turns out it wasn't a mushroom. An onion on the ground at Dunlap Spring??
Off to Oregon Butte.
Views from the north end of the ridge:
I went to sign the register, but someone had left the peanut butter jar hanging outside its little hut and it filled with water. The register was completely soaked. I tried to carefully trace my name on it but it didn't really show. But it's still the first name there in 2016.
I put it back in the little hut but not in its jar...hopefully it'll dry out and still be usable.Views from the Butte:
Stopped at Woody's in Dayton...
